"Men can alter a world, or ruin one; but they cannot move it one centimeter off its ordained course. That requires energies of literally cosmic magnitude.
"So you couldn't ease this planet into a suitable orbit around Beta Crucis. It must continue its endless wanderings."
-Poul Anderson, Satan's World IN Anderson, David Falkayn: Star Trader (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 329-598 AT p. 357.
Would gravity control not allow the moving of planets? In James Blish's Cities In Flight, men move a planet between galaxies faster than light with graviton polarity generators. In Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, the telepathic galactic mind launches a star cluster between galaxies.
Satan, the planet passing close to Beta Crucis, is a rogue. It seems that Anderson is correct when he tells us that there are many such planets. Satan's cryosphere becomes atmosphere and hydrosphere at periastron passage but re-forms during recession.
"'Nothing basic would have happened.'"
-op. cit., p. 356.
- except that the planet can be put to massive industrial use while it is energized. Satan and Mirkheim are two amazing creations by Anderson and the latter idea was suggested by his editor, John W. Campbell.
2 comments:
Paul:
"Would gravity control not allow the moving of planets?"
Unless a really improbable technological advance is assumed, gravity control on that level will either be wholly impossible or, indeed, require "energies of literally cosmic magnitude."
Kaor, Paul and DAVID!
We do see gravity control on a much smaller and plausible scale in Anderson's TALES OF THE FLYING MOUNTAINS. A technology like that might be able to move relatively small ASTEROIDS.
Sean
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